About the Author
Cathy Boyd Byrd invites others to join her in considering topics of interest to those on the Christian spiritual journey…..discipleship, spirituality, mental health, Christian growth, and Bible study. Cathy enjoys working with others as they transition from emotional emergency and brokenness to spiritual emergence and abundant living! Many of the topics about which Cathy writes are interrelated as experienced in her own life and in the lives of those with whom she works in counseling, teaching, and case management, and in friendships. She believes that sharing our journey of Christian growth and spirituality helps us know God and ourselves better and connects us with others!
Cathy is a Christian Educator and Life Recovery Counselor, and an ordained deacon through Christian Leaders Institute. She serves as Community Outreach MInister at Lynn Haven United Methodist Church. She is a student (disciple) of the Holy Spirit and shares with her students (disciples) the things the Lord teaches her through Bible study and contemplation, incorporating experiences interpreted through the Word, cherished traditions of her faith, and reasoning that comes from seeking the mind of Christ in accountable community. She was widowed in August 2020 after 48 years of marriage to Bill Byrd, is mother of 2 and grandmother of 5. Her journey of faith has been lifelong and continues to be an adventure with the trailblazer and guide, Jesus Christ!
Cathy is the founder and program manager for a Christian women’s residential life recovery program, Titus 2 Partnership, Inc.(www.titus2.life) in Panama City, Florida.
Deep Diving: Encounters of the God Kind
Where have you experienced a disconnection of soul in your life? How have you been brought back to center by an unexpected encounter with the sacred Other? How did your soul learn to breathe again?" I am not a diver, but living at the beautiful Gulf Coast, I have a number of friends and acquaintances that do. There is a joke I heard someone tell about himself having difficulty relating to his wife's spiritual conversations. He called her a "deep diver" and himself a "top floater". Kirk Squires writes this week about diving deep and the impact it had on his soul. I found myself...
Memoir
My daughter's journey into writing as part of her master's in fine arts degree program led to her asking me to share with her a bit about what it was like having three siblings. I could tell her about a family of six sharing one bathroom. I could tell her about eating lots and lots of chicken and rice or rice and tomato soup or egg gravy and biscuits. I could tell her about wearing cousins' hand-me-downs or dresses sewn by my grandmother or mother. I could tell her about battling with brothers in the back seat of a Chevrolet Impala for room on hour-long trips to grandparents'. I could...
Christian Gurus or the Real Deal?
I was reading the latest invitation to a women's conference with a stellar billing of well known speakers/writers and it got me to thinking about how many of us are "groupies" of this or that Christian "guru". Some people I know have done every study that has been published by this or that Christian teacher, but have never read the Bible in its entirety. Some choose to experience the Word only through the lenses of someone else's testimony and teaching. Ron Hutchcraft explores this phenomenon among Christians in today's devotional. He reminds us that our dependence on a person other than God...
Everything Old Is New Again….
In counseling with clients who have used drugs about their journeys into the "un-real", paranoid, even full-blown psychotic realm and in my own peak spiritual experiences (without the inducing influence of drugs), as described by Maslow, James, etal. of a "mystical" kind, I have come to believe that the opportunity to experience a meaningful "mystical" experience lies not in artificially loosening one's inhibitions and abandoning one's cognitive and affective capacities to some great "Cloud of Unknowing" or pharmacological high, but rather it is in loving and desiring to be present with God,...
A Little of This, A Little of That
Syncretism: the attempted reconciliation, amalgamation, or union of different or opposing principles, practices, parties, cultures, philosophies, or religions. "Syncretism is the mixing of Christianity with something else such that they become a different gospel. Syncretism can take place with a positive-thinking gospel, a nationalist emphasis, or emerging culture. Syncretism happens more than we might know. When anything is added to the message of the gospel, the uniqueness and sufficiency of Christ is compromised and another gospel can be created that is, well, actually not the gospel....
Falling Apart or Falling Into Place?
"What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience." C. S. Lewis Yesiree, now isn't that the truth? Sometimes an experience challenges the philosophy one has, based on prior experience, so radically that it rattles a foundational pillar and causes a major shift that requires one to adjust and regain equilibrium and confident footing before the lesson in the experience itself can be fully appreciated. As long as one's Cornerstone is well laid, however, no amount of tectonic shifting due to an outlier experience can bring down the structure of one's values...
Learning To Live With “Thorns in the Flesh”
Joni Eareckson Tada, who has known her share of pain- physical and emotional- shares this poem by Miss Margaret Clarkson, a woman who was bedridden for years with chronic pain: Lord Jesus, King of pain, Thy subject I; Thy right it is to reign: Oh, hear my cry, and bid in me all longings cease; save for Thy holy will's increase. Thy right it is to reign O'er all Thine own; then, if Thy love send pain, find there Thy throne, and help me bear it unto Thee, who didst bear death and hell for me. Lord Jesus, King of pain, my heart's adored, teach me eternal gain is love's reward: in Thee I hide...
Invitations and Promises
As I studied Eddie Rasnake’s workbook on Knowing and Following the Will of God, I was struck by his observation that the Bible contains proclamations (“Thou shalt…”), prohibitions (“Thou shalt not…”), principles, and promises. Reflecting on this, I realized this weekend that sometimes we believe something is a proclamation by God, interpreting it as a command, when really it is an invitation! Like Psalm 37:3-5 “Trust in the Lord and do good and you shall live securely in the land. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to him, trust in...
Overcoming Loneliness
This article on loneliness brings two things to mind for me. One, loneliness as a function of negative perception of social interactions suggests that there is a lack of ability or comfort in trusting others, including God. This is, at heart, an attachment issue. Also, one may be hypervigilant about how she is perceived by others, another indication of low trust capacity. The article notes that this results in perceived social threats (even when no threat is intended or exists.) Two, lack of self-identity and self-confidence in engaging socially may isolate individuals. All of these...
The Next Right Thing
It was a rough weekend. I found it necessary to dismiss one young lady who secreted beer into the house, drank it and got caught. That, in my experience, has been a very rare occurrence. She had been doing so well, but she let her anger get the best of her. Rather than dealing with it healthily, she reverted to her usual way of dealing with her emotions.....stuff and drown them. Another one was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with yet another serious physical condition that will now require all the creativity we can muster to address with the limited medical resources available to...